Cat Got Your Tongue
by Nejko
Summary: Returning from a tiring mission, Uchiha Itachi finds a certain pink haired medic looking for something and offers her his help. What he doesn't expect is Haruno Sakura to be so interesting. One-shot, Non-Massacre AU


**Cover Image: Itachi x Cat by Mister-Pancakes. The link is is my Profile :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

It was quiet when he arrived in Konoha. The guards at the gate had trouble staying awake and except for a few wandering drunks the streets were empty. Itachi hurried in the direction of the Uchiha compound to finally go home to get some much-needed rest. His mission was easy but tiring, he had to leave early in the morning and to make matters worse, his foolish younger brother had kept him awake asking questions about solo- missions. He and his loud blond teammate both had their first ones today and naturally, his brother was determined to be better and faster than his rival.

If he was lucky, he would find Onigiri in the fridge when he returned. His mother usually left some for him when he could not attend dinner, though it was possible that they were already stolen by Shisui, who frequently broke into Itachi's home to raid the fridge. It was practically impossible to keep him out because he just teleported away the very moment he was caught.

He was interrupted in his musings when he spotted his brother's other teammate, the pink haired medic and Hokage's apprentice. "Haruno Sakura was her name" he thought. She was frantically searching through some bushes on the side of the street, sniffing and stopping in intervals to wipe her eyes. She was obviously crying and very desperate. All Itachi wanted to do was go home and sleep but then again, she was his brothers teammate and Sasuke cared for her well-being. So quite reluctantly, he made his way to her side and asked, "What is wrong, Haruno-san?

She jumped a bit, surprised by his presence and spun around to face him. She really wasn't a pretty crier. Her eyes were puffy and red and her nose was running. Still, something in her eyes caught his interest. They were full of emotions, worry, sadness, desperation, nothing was hidden. It was quite rare to see a shinobi, that still had such vibrant eyes. Most chose to hide their feelings in their line of work.

The rest of her appearance was no better, her clothes looked randomly thrown together, only consisting of a sweater and shorts, and her hair was wet as if she just got out of the shower. "She will definitely catch a cold like this", Itachi concluded and was surprised to find himself displeased.

Sakura took a moment to, unsuccessfully, calm her breathing. "U-Uchiha-san! P-pancakes is...", was all she manages to say before she burst out crying again. Itachi suppressed a sigh. He wanted go home, eat some Onigiri and sleep but if he just left her like that she would most likely tell Sasuke and Sasuke would tell their mother. And Mikoto would make his life a living hell if she found out that he left a woman in need alone. Especially Sakura. She adored that girl and would never tire of talking about her.

So instead of imitating his older cousin, he took of his cloak and put it over Sakura's shoulders. "It is too cold to walk around in your attire. Now, calm down and tell me what happened.", he did his best to sound calm and not annoyed. It would only intimidate her and this whole ordeal would take longer than needed.

She took a few deep breaths, wiped her tears and mumbled a "thank you", the she looked at him. "Pancakes is my b-baby cat. I found him in an alley two days ago and he was heavily injured. I healed him and brought him home. T-today, after I came out of the shower, he was m-missing and the window was open. I immediately began looking for him, but I still can't find him.", she finally said. By the end, she looked as if she was ready to cry again. Quickly, Itachi tried to distract her, "How does the cat look like? I will help you searching."

Sakura looked genuinely surprised, "You would do that? Tank you!", she smiled, "He's brown and has a bandages around his torso and right front paw. I would have just gotten Naruto and Sasuke to help me, but they're on missions." Even in the dark, her eyes were sparkling now. Not with tears but with happiness. Seeing that,

Itachi felt a strange warmth inside his chest. He ignored it.

"Very well, I am sure this won't take long."

* * *

One and a half hours, there was still no sign of the kitten. Itachi even used his sharingan but to no avail. By then, he was in a really bad mood, partly caused by his lack of sleep and food and partly by Sakura, who just grew more worried as time passed by. He didn't even know why it bothered him. She wasn't vocal about her feelings, he just heard a quiet sob every once in a while, but everytime he looked into her eyes he felt himself grow distressed because of the emotions that were so clearly visible. He suspected it was because being a shinobi and ANBU captain, he was only used to people who hide their feelings, especially growing up as the Uchiha heir and therefore was affected by the stronger emotions. That was what he tried to convince himself of anyway.

After about twenty minutes, Sakura also started talking with him. It was mostly small talk and an occasional question about his personal life,though it was different from what most women asked him when they talked to him. Those wanted to find out if he was single or how they could attract him. But talking to Sakura turned out to be very pleasant, despite his worsening mood. Even if he only answered with a short 'hn', she seemed to understand him. She probably learned that being Sasuke's teammate for so long. Usually no one beside his family understood what he meant and the fact that this pink haired female was able to see through him was a rather nice feeling, which was quite disconcerting if he thought about it.

She was also a very good medic, on her way to be at the same level as Tsunade and even being send on solo-missions, to heal people outside of Konoha, before her two teammates. "Sasuke was so mad when I told him. He was sure that he would be the first to be send on a solo-mission. His pouting was rather adorable. We had to buy him his favourite brand of tomatoes to make him stop.", she laughed. It struck Itachi as rather strange to hear his eighteen-year-old brother be referred to as 'adorable'.

"And now, he and Naruto have this whole competition who will return first from his mission. They made such a big deal out of it, people are even betting on it. Well, I think I will though." she exclaimed with a confident smile.

"Who did you bet on?", Itachi asked. Even if she talked cheerfully, he noticed that she grew more depressed by the second and started to shiver.

"I said they would return at the exact same time. They simply can't win against each other. Of course, that only frustrates them and they work harder. I mean it's nice that they push each other to get better but it gets kind of ridiculous. Last time they sparred, they destroyed three training grounds. It was lucky that Yamato-taichou was with us. Tsunade-shishou would have murdered them otherwise.

"But at least they stopped using dangerous jutsu. After that time Naruto hit Sasuke's back with a rasengan and he nearly lost all feeling from waist-down, Kakashi and I forbid it." Itachi glanced at her sharply. She saw the question or rather demand to explain in his eyes and said; "Don't worry, he's fine I healed him. I'm sorry, I feel it's partly my fault. They grow reckless thinking I am always there to put them back together.", she shook her head.

"Maybe I should have a talk with my foolish little brother." Itachi said and seeing petite form shaking from the cold and lips turning slightly blue he continued, "I believe we should stop looking for today. You are clearly exhausted and cold."

Sakura was shocked, "But Pancakes-"

"-Will be fine. Even small cats are able to take care of themselves. Tomorrow we will continue searching for him but now you really need to warm up unless you want to get sick." Itachi interrupted calmly. Her crestfallen look stirred something inside his chest and he found himself...displeased. Before he could ponder on that feeling she seemed to notice the full meaning of his words though and her face immediately lit up in a bright smile. He had to admit to himself, that she was pretty when she smiled and he had to fight the urge to smile. He did not show emotions in public.

"You will continue to help me? Thank you so much, Uchiha-san! I will be on my way then. Have a good night and thank you again!" she said and turned to leave, occasionally stopping to look through another bush. It seemed as if she again was fully set on searching for her cat.

Itachi stood for a moment and then, being a gentleman, he began to walk after her. "I will escort you home, Haruno-san." he said and startled her for the second time that night. But now that she was not distracted by crying her reaction was different.

She jolted in the air and then spun around, ready to punch him. She quickly realised her mistake and ungracefully stopped her fist from connecting with his chin, not that he would have let her punch him.

"U-Uchiha-san! Please don't sneak up to me like that!" she shouted really embarrassed and her face flushed a deep red. "Normally, Naruto and Sasuke try to scare me and I guess I just learned to defend myself from them" she explained while rubbing her neck sheepishly.

He studied her face for a few seconds, then chose to ignore it and simply gestured her to lead the way to her home an amused glint in his eyes. She flushed even deeper and quickly walked past him in the general direction of her apartment.

Haruno Sakura could be very entertaining, Itachi thought.

* * *

The walk to her house had been quiet. Sakura seemed way to embarrassed to talk so Itachi had enough time to think about his unusual reaction to the medic. He realised that he was attracted to her, bit he couldn't figure out why.

His pondering thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of a door being unlocked. They had arrived in front of her apartment door and she turned to him and bowed.

"Thank you, Uchiha-san, for helping me today" she said and straightened up showing a bright smile again. She had overcome her embarrassment apparently. Opening the door, she continued " Also, thank you for your offer to help me again tomorrow but I couldn't bother you any further, I will just ask the Pi- Yamanaka-san to help me. Her Mind Body Switch Technique is very useful in cases like this."

Ignoring the inappropriate use of shinobi techniques,he decided that he didn't like the way she disregarded him. Maybe she was still embarrassed for nearly punching him after all, but even then Itachi really did want to see Sakura again. He still hadn't found out why he was attracted to her, after all.

Before he could think of an answer that subtly but surely conveyed this thoughts, he heard a muffled mew coming from inside. Sakura seemed to hear it too, because her eyes widened and she dashed inside and after a minute emerged with a small brown kitten in her arms that was quite obviously contended in his new position and was quiet now.

He also came to face with a happily gleaming Sakura, who very enthusiastically explained where she found the cat. Itachi couldn't help but to feel a small glint of happiness too, even though the two hours of search had been totally unneeded if she just looked properly.

"He was in the kitchen, probably looking for something to eat. I must have locked him in when I went to take my shower. I didn't notice he was there at all. But I am so happy to have you back, Pancakes, I was looking for you for three hours..." The last part was directed at the feline itself rather than at Itachi and with the last sentence she also seemed to realise that she had involved him in a two hour long search at his end just because she did the stupid mistake to assume that the kitten had run

away.

Her face turned ashen and she started to splutter apologies that were to fast and incomprehensible for even Itachi to understand. Apparently though, she came to the conclusion she needed to make it up to him and before he could say anything else, she had already thrust the cat into his arms arms and sprinted away into her kitchen.

Pancakes didn't mind and happily purring settled into Itachi's arms as if he belonged there. Said Uchiha couldn't suppress the small chuckle that escaped him. Her reactions definitely amusing. He heard loud clattering in her kitchen and profanities she probably picked up from the Hokage. Within two minutes she was back in front of him with a box filled with Onigiri. He stared at her wordlessly.

"Uchiha-san, I am deeply sorry for involving you in this. It is my stupid fault for not checking the apartment for Pancakes before I rushed out. Please accept these Onigiri as part of my apology, I heard from Sasuke that you like them very much." She said as she bowed at her waist while stretching said Onigiri forward.

"It is quite alright, Sakura-san. I am glad your cat is alright and I accept the Onigiri as your apology." he said calmly. The Rice balls looked delicious and he took them with a rare smile. She really was something different and he was now determined to learn more about her, now that she had caught his interest.

Sakura, upon hearing Itachi call her by her first name, shot straight up and looked at him with wide eyes. Too shocked, she did not move while he deposited the kitten back into her arms and leaned forward, brushing his lips against her cheek and whispering in her ear, "You may call me 'Itachi', Sakura-san. See you again soon."

With that he left a dumbfounded, wide eyed Sakura at her doorstep. After a minute

it hit her what just happened and her face flushed tomato-red.

* * *

**AN: So this was my first try at writing an ItaSaku fic, my absolute favourite pairing. I am really not sure how it turned out. I would be very happy if you told me your opinion about it. :)**

**Also, I was thinking about writing a sequel so please tell me if i should!**

**-Nejko**


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